sunlight

Etymology

From Middle English sonnelight, sunneliht, from Old English sunnan lēoht (“sunlight”),^[1] equivalent to sun +‎ light. Cognate with Dutch zonlicht (“sunlight”), German Low German Sünnenlücht (“sunlight”), German Sonnenlicht (“sunlight”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌnˌlaɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌnlaɪt
• Hyphenation: sun‧light

Noun

sunlight (countable and uncountable, plural sunlights)

1. All the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, especially that in the visible spectrum that bathes the Earth.

   Sunlight on the skin gives you vitamin D.

   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

2. (figuratively) Brightness, hope; a positive outlook.
3. Synonym of sunrise.

Verb

sunlight (third-person singular simple present sunlights, present participle sunlighting, simple past and past participle sunlighted)

1. To work on the side (at a secondary job) during the daytime.

References

• sunlight on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• hustling, unlights